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In September, NBC and distributor Dial Global will wade in to radio programming, a genre in which ESPN has been aggressive for years — now airing more than 9,000 hours of programming annually over 700 stations.

"We'll start with hourly sports updates and one-, two-minute daily essays you could compare to what Charles Kuralt or Paul Harvey did," says Rob Simmelkjaer, senior vice president of NBC Sports Ventures and International. (NBC probably shouldn't cite those radio voices of yore if it wants to pitch its new programming as cutting-edge.)

And NBC hopes to have two three-hour weekday shows — one starting at 7 p.m. ET and the other at 10 p.m. ET — that could begin airing in September. Those shows might have announcers already on-air on NBC or the NBC Sports Network cable channel.

"The goal is to start with a beachhead of programming and gradually expand to 24 hours per day, seven days per week maybe in 3-5 years," says Simmelkjaer, who also works on-air for NBC and will be a host of MSNBC's London Olympics coverage.

He says the NBC programming, to be sold in tandem with Dial Global's NFL radio broadcasts, initially won't include programming simulcast on radio and TV: "That's not part of our plan right now. In the future, we might look at it because it tends to go better with shows created for radio, like ESPN's Mike & Mike, and then you just add a TV studio."

The big picture, he says, suggests that NBC Sports also should start marketing alarm clocks: "NBC Sports needs to give fans a way to touch our brand from when they get up to when they go to bed at night."

Quick change: If NBC's Belmont Stakes trophy presentation Saturday seemed a bit ad hoc —Bob Costas referred to "makeshift conditions" after being heard saying, "Where's my camera?" — it's because the site was moved. But online speculation that the move came to get away from a nearby animal-rights protester is incorrect, NBC spokesman Adam Freifeld said Sunday: "It had nothing to do with any protests. The presentation site was moved to accommodate where Union Rags owner Phyllis Wyeth (who uses a wheelchair) wanted to go."

Not bad:I'll Have Another dropping out of the Belmont killed chances to get the predictable TV ratings bounce that comes with having a Triple Crown contender in the event. Since 2000, the eight Belmont races without a Triple Crown candidate averaged 4% of U.S. TV households, while the four races with horses contending to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978 averaged 10.1% of households. But last week's hype over I'll Have Another probably helped. NBC's Belmont on Saturday drew a 5.4 overnight, which translates to 5.4% of households in the 56 urban TV markets measured for overnights. That 5.4% is up 13% from last year and 74% from 2010 — and is the highest rating for a Belmont without a Triple Crown contender since 2005.

Title IX: Two of ESPN's core principles are TV tonnage and recycling. Monday, it will announce an extreme example of each: From June 22-24, ESPN channels will air more than 170 hours of women's sports programming to mark the 40th anniversary of Title IX on June 23. Says Laura Gentile, vice president for the women's sports website espnW.com, which contributes to various ESPN platforms: "We tried to cover it from every angle." Shows include replays of events such as the 1973 Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs tennis showdown, which hasn't been on TV since 2003 and will air June 23 (9 p.m. ET) on ESPN Classic.

Running numbers: Here's the recipe for big TV ratings: Take a superstar fans love or love to hate —LeBron James— facing a storied franchise in a seven-game series. ESPN got that: The Miami Heat's Game 7 win vs. the Boston Celtics in the NBA Eastern Conference finals on Saturday drew a 9.1 overnight, the highest NBA overnight ever on cable TV. (The NBA Finals are always on broadcast TV.) That was the third game in the series that produced a record overnight for NBA action on cable. … The good news for NBC is that the New Jersey Devils rallied from a 3-0 series start to force a Stanley Cup Final Game 6 on Monday vs. the Los Angeles Kings. The longer a playoff series lasts, in various sports, the better for ratings. Saturday's Game 5 drew a 2.6 overnight — translating to 2.6% of households in the 56 urban markets measured for overnights — down 19% from Game 5 of last year's Boston Bruins-Vancouver Canucks Stanley Cup Final. That comes after the two previous games were down 33% from last year, and NBC's coverage of the series' first two games was down 25%.

Spice rack: With time to kill on NBC's rain-delayed French Open men's single title match Sunday, viewers got to hear NBC's John McEnroe talk about how he and his brother Patrick drew a decent crowd in playing a French Open "legends" match, "8,000-7,000 people to watch two old farts. Not bad." But just when the soggy Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic match was heating up — "We're witnessing something we may never see again, Nadal losing eight straight games," McEnroe said — the match was called for rain. Today, NBC Sports Network and nbcsports.com will carry live action at 7 a.m. ET, with NBCSN re-airing the match after its conclusion. … On Monday's 9 a.m. ET SportsCenter, ESPN debuts what will be a 30-part RonJaworskiQB Countdown series of features running until July 10 that will examine all the NFL's veteran starting quarterbacks —and Tim Tebow. In fact, Tebow is the first quarterback profiled. What a surprise! … CBS' JimNantz married Courtney Richard on Saturday at the seventh hole at Pebble Beach. Nantz, whose first marriage ended in 2009, met Richards while she worked at IMG, the sports marketing powerhouse that also represents Nantz. … The Big Ten Network on Wednesday brings in 18 Michigan State head coaches to do some practice interviews, punch some buttons in editing rooms and maybe try on some TV pancake makeup in an effort to make them more media-savvy. Maybe they could take home some souvenir catchphrases.

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